Joey Leavitt and Dr. Chad Emmett, Geography
Syria’s unique geographic location places it at both the epicenter of ancient Christianity’s advent and the heart of the modern Islamic Middle East. This rich and diverse religious history is evident today in Syria’s population. Although the majority of Syrians are Muslim, a sizable minority of between 10% and 20% profess Christianity.
Religion is often an important element in defining people, communities, and nations, especially in traditional societies of the Middle East. In some areas, such as Iraq, Chechnya, Kosovo, or Lebanon, religious friction can lead to open conflict. Syria’s distinct religious landscape appears calm on the surface and has not produced significant Christian-Muslim violence for some time. However, the realities of inter-religious relations are not always readily apparent. My project examined these religious relationships through the lens of the geography of Christian and Muslim places of worship.
The location of religious architecture has historically been an important symbol of religious supremacy or tolerance. For instance, the famous Umayyid Mosque in Damascus straddles the ruins of the Temple of Jupiter, the vanquished Romans’ worship site, as a mark of Islam’s ascendance over the pagan Romans. Krak des Chevaliers, a spectacular Crusader castle in western Syria, is another example of the symbolism of the physical location of religious architecture. When Muslim armies overran the Christian stronghold in the 14th century, they constructed a vast mosque 20 feet from the Gothic-style worship hall the knights had used. The fact that the conquerors built a separate Islamic worship chamber, leaving the Christian hall intact, suggests a degree of symbolic religious tolerance.
I examined Syria’s religious environment by noting the locations, construction dates, and renovation dates of Islamic mosques and Christian churches in the Christian sections of Syria’s two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo. Because it is impossible to gain a comprehensive understanding of Christian-Muslim relations through such a limited study, my purpose was to develop a general feeling for the religious climate, rather than to unearth specifics.
I gathered information from informational plaques posted outside mosques and churches and by questioning officials, workers, lay-people, nearby business owners, or passerby. After plotting the sites’ locations on maps (see Figures 1 and 2) and gathering relevant building dates, I used the information to determine which structures came first, how close together neighboring mosques and churches were built, whether remodeling of one faith’s worship site was quickly followed by the renovation of a nearby site of the other faith, and what messages the mosques’ and churches’ outer appearances were meant to send.
I found that few mosques stood within the hazy, unofficial borders of the Christian quarters of both Damascus and Aleppo. The few that were built inside the Christian areas were modest in size and appearance. Interestingly, however, the Christian sections of both cities seemed to be ringed by mosques. This was especially noticeable in Damascus, where the Christian quarter is outlined on two sides by the Old City wall and nearly half a dozen mosques line the 2-3 mile stretch of wall. It also seems noteworthy that at least one soaring minaret is visible from the entrance of most of Damascus’s largest and most famous Christian churches.
Furthermore, I noticed that the construction or renovation of a large Christian church in Damascus was generally followed by the erection of a new mosque in close proximity or the remodeling of an existing nearby one. Aleppo’s Christian section was relatively newer than Damascus’s, with most of its churches being built within the past 150 years. Most of the mosques surrounding the Christian quarter there went up in the last 30-40 years.
The main difficulties of my project were obtaining credible information and interpreting it. Because Syria’s religious sites are so old and poor records are kept, much of my information came from officials’ and locals’ estimations. Although I triple- and quadruple-checked my construction and remodeling dates, I cannot be sure of their accuracy. Interpreting the data is tricky because the process is very subjective. What does it mean that mosques ring the Christian quarters of Damascus and Aleppo? It could be a reminder to the area’s Christians that Islam is ascendant or it could be a sign of religious tolerance, that the Islamic crescent and the Christian cross can share the same skyline. My sense, through observation and in speaking with contacts in both Damascus and Aleppo, is that adherents of the two faiths share the same cities and interact both professionally and socially. However, deep suspicions, rarely displayed, seem to exist between Muslims and Christians. It is my proposition that this invisible discord is tacitly displayed in the locations and size of mosques and churches, especially within Syria’s major Christian areas.